History

Her envy of Bag End was well-known,[2] she could not wait to inherit it, and was furious when Bilbo made Frodo his heir. However, when Frodo left for Rivendell he sold Bag End to Lobelia, but unfortunately Otho had died by then.[3]

During The War of the Ring, Lobelia was imprisoned in Lockholes for arguing with the Chief's Men, and attacking one of them with an umbrella. When she came out, Lobelia was popular for the first time for bravely standing up to the Saruman's Men. However, she was crushed to find out her son had died whilst she was in prison.

After the War of the Ring, Lobelia returned to her home village of Hardbottle to live with the other Bracegirdles, giving Bag End to Frodo. When she died, she gave her money to Frodo to be used to help hobbits left homeless by Saruman and her son.[4]

Etymology

Sackville was the name of a relatively young Hobbit family.[5] Their name had an association with Baggins in that both contained an element for "bag/sack"; Sackville was a slightly more aristocratic version.[6]Tom Shippey argued that this "similarity" also provoked an antonymy: Bag End was used around England as a replacement of French cul-de-sac, "dead end street" - even Tolkien's own aunt Jane Neave lived in a house of that name. Tolkien did not like the Norman conquest of Britain, and made the Bagginses English. The name Sackville, however, is very Norman, as one of the few, if not the only, Hobbit family name.[7]

Other Versions of the Legendarium

In J.R.R. Tolkien's manuscript of The Hobbit the Sackville-Baggins were called the Allibone Baggins.[8]John D. Rateliff stated that the change to "Sackville" was penciled in about the time the story was being prepared for publication in 1936. The significance of "Allibone" is unknown although Mr. Rateliff thought it might relate to Alboin, a character in The Lost Road.[9]